E. B. Tanner in U.S. Pat. No. 3,355,401 discloses the preparation of products from epoxy resins, polyfunctional acids and monofunctional acids by reacting them in such a manner that they obtained acid values from 30 to 90 mg KOH/gram. This was made possible by conducting the reaction such that the resultant product had an acid number in the range of 30-90 mg KOH/gm of product. These products, when employed in coating applications, result in undesirable coating performance having a deficiency in one or more properties such as poor flexibility, poor solvent resistance, poor water pasteurization resistance, and the like.
It would therefore be desirable to have available high molecular weight epoxy ester resins which have a high molecular weight and a narrow molecular weight distribution resin. By the term "high molecular weight" it is meant the weight average molecular weight is greater than 10,000. By the term "narrow molecular weight distribution" it is meant that the epoxy ester resin has a polydispersity value less than 10, preferably less than 6, more preferably less than 4. By the term "polydispersity" it is meant the value obtained when the weight average molecular weight (Mw) is divided by the number average molecular weight (Mn).